Par too high??

[Dmmuir]

Is this too much??

 

[cmoore806]

For what?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Depends on what corals your aiming for. SPS, LPS, softies..

SPS dominate, I'd shoot for 300's up high and on the sand bed around 150's.

 

[Dmmuir]

Mixed reef. Guess it’s sps up top and soft/lps on the sand

 

[Hydrored]

@Flippers4pups nailed it, what lights are you running? That may change things

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Looks good to me although you dont have much room for growth on the right structure...

 

[Phildago]

It's a little bright, but not bad. If you could turn it down a little tiny bit you could fill the tank wall to wall mixed reef

 

[Flippers4pups]

It's a little bright, but not bad. If you could turn it down a little tiny bit you could fill the tank wall to wall mixed reef

Looks, especially in photos can be deceiving PAR wise. Though many, most likely the majority of hobbyist use that "eye" to gauge how their corals are doing. It's old school and can work if you start off with low light intensity and make very small adjustments over the course of weeks.

 

[Michael Gray]

Lps can thrive in 250 par and up????? I didn't know that.... I thought u want 150 to 200 tops for acan and such

 

[Phildago]

Looks, especially in photos can be deceiving PAR wise. Though many, most likely the majority of hobbyist use that "eye" to gauge how their corals are doing. It's old school and can work if you start off with low light intensity and make very small adjustments over the course of weeks.

I was going off the par numbers posted. I shoot for under 500 max par just because I've found that to be the high par sweet spot in my own experience. Anything over hasn't yielded much benefit and left the overall par too high to keep as a mixed tank. It could vary with rock work of course and nice shaded areas for lps

 

[Flippers4pups]

Lps can thrive in 250 par and up????? I didn't know that.... I thought u want 150 to 200 tops for acan and such

150's are a good level for them.

A lot of corals can do very well at or around 200, including SPS.

 

[melanotaenia]

It all depends on what type of coral you plan and how you acclimate them; SPS can tolerate 900+ PAR if acclimated correctly.

 

[Michael Gray]

What's the hot spot for torches and acans

 

[Spare time]

I would lower it so that midlevel and bottom are less than 250 par. Some LPS can tolerate higher par and may even be more colorful in it, but you will see much slower growth depending on the species. I think people in this hobby overestimate how much PAR a coral needs simply because they get that sort of intensity in the wild. Wild does not always equal better. SPS often have to tolerate extreme environments, shielding themselves up during much of the day and only photosynthesizing in the morning and evening.

 

[Dmmuir]

The top is open at the moment, I was going to screen it, but I may go with acrylic tops now and recheck par through them. That would slow the crazy evaporation down some as well.

 

[Dmmuir]

@Flippers4pups nailed it, what lights are you running? That may change things

It’s am ati sunpower 6 bulb 60” t5ho fixture, there’s no dimming in these, it’s acrylic top and if I want to lower it more I’ll raise the canopy.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Wayy too high imo based on the look of your tank. Try sand bed at around 100, mid 150 and top 200s. High will kill low won’t.

 

[Phildago]

What's the hot spot for torches and acans

Mine seem like 100 -150 tops

 

[dadnjesse]

The rock structure on the right seems a little high to me not much room for the corals to grow before coming out of the water.

 

[Dmmuir]

I cut acrylic covers to fit each side of the tank, that dropped me 10-15 par, I know it will lose much more as they get water etc on them, I also raised the light 8” to get to the par levels I wanted. 120 on the sand bed, up to a max of just 300 on the highest ricks.

thanks for the input everyone!